School District of Lee County on Aug. 5 celebrated the opening of the new Franklin Park Elementary School in the Dunbar community. The school site, at 2323 Ford St., will open for the 2024-25 school year. The $60 million project features a 100-student-station pre-K center, a 700-student-station kindergarten through fifth grade and approximately 9,000 square feet for community wrap-around programs. Franklin Park Elementary is the district’s first Community Partnership School, providing on-site services and incorporating partners, including United Way and Lee Health, to support students and families. A walkway at the school’s entrance honors the past with bricks from the original campus. Franklin Park Elementary opened in 1958 as an all-Black school. It was converted into a middle school and integrated in 1970, then renovated and returned to an elementary school in 1977. In 2023, the entire school was demolished except for one classroom structure.
Three new apartment complex projects in North Fort Myers — the 160-unit Hermosa, the 320-unit Mast and 283-unit The Alary...
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